This invention relates to poly(arylene sulfide) and, more particularly, to compositions of arylene sulfide polymer and filler materials. In another of its aspects this invention relates to processing arylene sulfide polymer and filled arylene sulfide polymer. In yet another aspect of the invention it relates to the addition of ethylene polymers to polymeric compositions.
In most applications in which arylene sulfide polymer is molded, the arylene sulfide polymer must be filled with a relatively large amount of filler materials such as fiberglass, graphite and/or mineral fibers. These high loadings of fillers cause a significant reduction in flow which can result in difficulty in compounding and injection molding. It has now been found that the addition of a small amount of ethylene polymer to the filled arylene sulfide polymer compositions can considerably increase the flow properties of the total composition. Although it has been known to add relatively large amounts of ethylene polymer into arylene sulfide polymer compositions, the special ability of small amounts of ethylene polymers to improve processability of arylene sulfide polymer compositions has hitherto been unrecognized.
It is therefore an object of this invention to improve the processability of arylene sulfide polymer compositions. It is also an object of this invention to provide a polymeric composition comprising arylene sulfide polymer and ethylene polymer in which the composition has improved processability over arylene sulfide polymer compositions that do not contain ethylene polymer.
Other aspects, objects, and the various advantages of this invention will become apparent upon the study of this application and the appended claims.